As a teenager, so obsessed was I with my gold Topshop ballet flats, that when they became scuffed and cracked, I’d colour in the scratches using a metallic marker from my school’s art department.
Since adolescence, my love affair with the stalwart of Indie Sleaze has waned, but like other style tribes with a certain affinity for the pirouette-worthy pump (see Sloane rangers, Ivy League obsessives, die-hard fans of Katie Holmes, Kate Moss and Alexa Chung), my interest in the flimsy flat has once again been piqued.
Blame it on the Miu Miu effect. When Miuccia Prada sent her models down the runway for her Wimbledon-meets-Juilliard autumn/winter 2022 collection, their satin ballet flats worn with snuggly knitted socks riffed on the lusted-after lace-up styles in her label’s spring/summer 2016 offering. Vogue staffers Julia Hobbs and Alice Cary are often seen looking barre-ready, padding down the parquet corridors of Vogue House in the softly-soled, ribboned and elasticated pumps.
The ballet pump is on point for spring/summer 2023 too, seen in sunburst yellow and purple silk at Tod’s, accented with the Italian label’s signature Gommino sole. The styles emphasise the classicism that pervaded the Tod’s catwalk, one swathed in the supplest of leathers and suedes, adhering to pared-back ’90s minimalism. It’s this purity of thought which Sunnei – a brand that reinvents and upturns timeless shapes – has subverted, with a ballet flat for men with a spiky pebbled sole.
At MM6, inspiration came from the image of a dancer in rehearsal: fresh from the street, still swaddled in layers, slowly warming up achey limbs. Models sported dancer’s separates, like leggings, boleros and vests, and loose scissored suiting, paired for men and women with ballet pumps reinforced like pointe shoes.
Simone Rocha too has offered her take on the ballet pump, a style meditating on both fragility and strength, in metallic khaki and bronze leathers and pretty floral fabrics, criss-crossed with leather laces and a trainer-style upper. Our styling advice? Keep them well away from permanent markers.
